CHAPTER 9

	Hannah lay quietly in her bed.  Beside her, Cole held Morgan, rocking back and
forth, never taking his eyes off her.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous!
Hannah scolded herself, as she watched him run his hand gently over the baby’s hair,
and gingerly explore her tiny fingers as he cradled her in his arms, talking softly.  He had
been sitting there for a long, long time, as if mesmerized.  At last, he stood up and rested
Morgan softly in Hannah’s arms.  As she looked down at the little miracle in her arms, he
bent to kiss the baby on the top of her head.   In one fluid motion, he moved his lips to
place a soft kiss on Hannah’s forehead as well. 
	“You were amazing in there,” he said, smiling down at her, then looking back at
the baby.
	“Aw, it was nothing,” Hannah joked.
	He smiled at her, then reluctantly stood up straight. “I have some things I have to
take care of, a few of the men from the Forsythe Mall job I have to talk to.  I’ll come back
as soon as I can, and if I can’t make it back over here tonight, I’ll call to see how you two
are doing.”  He stood looking down at her, and Hannah thought for a moment that she
saw him teetering, as if there was something else on his mind that he wasn’t sure
whether he should mention or not. Then he cleared his throat, said goodbye and left the
room.  
	“Your Daddy thinks you’re real special,” Hannah said, looking down at the
sleeping babe.  “Maybe I did the right thing, moving in with him, afterall, hmm?  You think
so? He’ll be able to spend a lot of time with you that way.”  She sighed, and rested her
head back on her pillow.  The question was, could Hannah handle spending so much
time near him!  The feelings she got lately when he was around,  were extremely
confusing!
	Meanwhile, Cole pulled out his cell phone as he turned the car towards the Mall,
and dialled his brother’s number. 
	“I need you to meet me with the truck,” he said, when Ty answered. 
	“Well, hello to you too,”  Ty said lazily. “Where have you been, Bro.’?  I called
about an hour ago.”
	“Been having a baby,” Cole said proudly.
	“You’ve been having a baby for months, that’s nothing new anymore,” Ty
chuckled.
	“I mean having it.  The most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen! Ty, I’m a father, a real
father now!”
	“Whoa!” Ty exclaimed. “I wasn’t expecting that for a few more weeks.  Everything
OK?”
	“Perfect,” Cole said.  “How soon can you get over to the Mall with the truck?”
	
	It was later that evening when Cole peeked his head around the door of
Hannah’s room, then stepped in, with Ty in tow behind.  The baby was sleeping quietly
in a little hospital bassinet next to the bed, and Hannah was reading a magazine. When
she saw them she beamed up at them. She was glad to have someone to talk to at last!
	“Say hello to Morgan, Uncle Ty,” Hannah told him, and he looked down at the
sleeping baby.
	“She’s so tiny!”  Ty said, in awe. “Are all babies this tiny?”
	“She’s smaller than most, because she was early, but she’s perfect! They took
her away for a while earlier, to run some tests.  They kept her under the lights in the
nursery for several hours.  They say she’s strong, and the two weeks early isn’t affecting
her at all, but they want to keep her here a day or two longer than the other babies. They
just brought her back here about a half hour ago for her feeding.” Hannah looked up at
Cole, noticing that he had been listening intently to every word she had been saying. 
“I’ve been bored while she wasn’t here.  I called Jennifer’s but she wasn’t home.  What
have you been up to?” Then she squinted and looked at him closely.  “Is that paint in
your hair?”
	“Yeah, I had to help the guys down at the Mall job,” he said casually.  “I thought I
had got it all out.”
	Ty glanced at his brother. “Is that paint? Huh!  And here I thought having this
baby had turned your hair grey.”
	“Hannah did all the work!”  Cole insisted.
	Ty shrugged. “Well, give it time, this parenting thing will turn you grey eventually.
Remember what Dad looked like?”
	“That was your fault, you’re the one who turned him grey.  Morgan isn’t going to
be anything like you!”  Cole laughed. 
	“Hmm,” Ty eyed the baby closely. “You never know, with enough coaching from
me, she might have a chance.”  He winked at his brother. 
	“Hey! Don’t mess with my family!” Cole warned, jokingly.
	They all laughed, and the conversation went on in much the same manner, while
Hannah leaned back and watched, listening as the two brothers talked.  Cole had
referred to them as a family, and it had made her heart melt.  Family. Her, Morgan and
Cole?  Could they ever be a real family?  Would she ever fit into his life as anything
more than the mother of his baby?  Would she ever get over the panic she felt when
thoughts like this entered her mind?
	Some time later another new mother was wheeled in and settled in the empty
bed on the other side of the room.  She was closely followed by an obviously doting
husband, who spent much of the next ten minutes perched on the edge of his wife’s bed
fussing over her before he finally got up and announced that he was going to go call his
parents and in-laws.  He kissed his wife lovingly, then walked past Hannah’s bed and
gave a cheery greeting to the two men before he was gone. 
	The young woman propped herself up against the pillows in her bed, smoothed
the blankets, and sighed.  She looked out the window for a while, then turned to look at
Hannah’s side of the room.  She offered a shy smile as she panned the three adults and
the baby, then rested her head back against the pillow and sighed again.  Finally she
raised her head up again and looked at Hannah.
	“I’m Wendy,” she said, smiling, as she tucked a strand of long straggling blonde
hair behind her ear.  “I guess I must look a mess, huh?”
	Hannah looked at her in disbelief.  Did this girl actually think it mattered what she
looked like after giving birth?  Hannah remembered those first few moments she had
spent in her  bed after Morgan had been born.  The thoughts that had passed through
her mind had been along the lines of I’m so glad it’s finally over, and Thank God I have a
healthy baby! and Morgan is the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth,  but
never once had she given any thought to  does my hair look OK?
	“I’m Hannah. You look just fine, Wendy,”  Hannah said, with a genuine smile.
“You just look like a woman who just had a baby, that’s all.”
	Wendy groaned and rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m afraid of!” she said, running
her fingers through her hair trying to make it look better. 
	Hannah chuckled.  “There is nothing wrong with that.  Giving birth isn’t exactly the
easiest job in the world you know.”
	Wendy groaned again.  “You’ve got that right!” she said, nodding, and shifting in
the bed. “I thought it would never ever  be over! I was in labour for twelve hours.  I can’t
wait to get out of this bed and take a shower!”
	Hannah winced.  Twelve hours!  Did she dare tell this woman that she had barely
made it to the hospital?  That Morgan had been born in a matter of minutes?  The poor
girl must be exhausted after spending twelve hours giving birth.  “Well, there, see — you
look wonderful for a girl who just spent twelve hours in labour!” Hannah exclaimed.
	Wendy smiled, the first really genuine looking smile Hannah had seen since the
girl had started talking to her.  “Thanks,” she said, then glanced at where Morgan was
cradled in Ty’s arms.  “Boy or girl?” she asked.
	“Girl,” Hannah beamed, “Her name is Morgan.”   Hannah looked over at the
baby.  She was sleeping in her uncle’s arms while the two men were talking about —
well, the best she could make out, they were talking about a construction job, which
made her chuckle, but it didn’t matter. They were enjoying their time with the baby.
	“So tiny!”  Wendy said, stretching her neck to see a little better, then she settled
back and sighed. “I have a boy.  He was huge! Well, at least he felt like he was huge,
and I looked like an elephant before I had him!  I’ll be so glad to get my figure back again
and be able to wear my real clothes!”
	Wendy smoothed the covers over herself and Hannah made a mental note that
that was the second time the girl had made reference to her appearance as if it was very
important to her.  Hannah hadn’t even given any thought yet to what she looked like
without her pregnant belly, she’d just been so happy that nothing had gone terribly
wrong with Morgan’s birth.
	“Morgan was a few weeks premature, but she probably would have been a small
baby anyway,” Hannah said. “How big was yours?”
	“Eight and a half pounds,” Wendy said, with her nose screwed up as if it were
eight and a half pounds she would rather not have had to push out.  
	“I bet he looks precious,” Hannah said, trying to find something that would take
Wendy’s mind off herself.
	The girl smiled again. “Oh he does, really he does.  We called him Nathan. His
father really wanted a boy.   I don’t know what he would have done if I had had a girl!” 
Wendy rolled her eyes and groaned again, and Hannah turned to look at Cole.  He was
sitting in a chair, looking completely at home, talking shop with Ty but every now and
then his eyes would fall on the baby in his brother’s arms.  Did he mind that Morgan was
a girl and not a boy, she wondered.  He had never stated a preference, never once said
anything more than that he hoped the baby was born healthy.  And he most certainly
had become enchanted with Morgan in the few hours since her birth!
	“He probably would have loved her just the same,” Hannah suggested, and
Wendy shrugged. 
	“I don’t know.  He was obsessed with having a boy.  It is very important in his
family, for the first baby to be a boy, to carry on the family name.  It’s almost like a
competition!  His brother had a baby girl last year and they still haven’t let him forget it! 
I’m just glad we had a boy, I would have felt like a failure if we hadn’t.”
	“Nonsense!”  The word was out before Hannah could stop it, and Wendy looked
at her with wide eyes.  Sheepishly Hannah continued. “You can’t control whether you
have a boy or a girl, it wouldn’t have been your fault, and it most certainly wouldn’t have
been the baby’s fault.  If there is one thing a baby should come into this world counting
on, without conditions, it is the love of its parents!”
	Wendy smiled, but Hannah could see she wasn’t convinced.  “John wouldn’t
agree.  I just know he wouldn’t have loved this baby as much if it had been a girl.  For
the second one, fine, but not the first.  His brother’s wife if pregnant again, because they
had to try again right away to get their boy.  If they get one, he will be spoiled, I just know
it.”  Then she beamed. “But of course, my baby will be spoiled the most, because he is
the first male grandchild.  There will be benefits!”
	Hannah raised her brow and said nothing.  It was obvious this girl, and her
husband’s family, were hung up on appearances and material things.  Hannah almost
felt sorry for baby Nathan!
	“He looks like he’s going to be a great father,” Wendy was saying, and it took
Hannah a few minutes to realize she wasn’t talking about her John. “Look at how he
holds her, you can tell she means the world to him.”
	Hannah smiled and looked at the baby, how the strong arms held her gently yet
protectively, rocking her ever so gently every now and then. She chuckled a little and
shook her head. 	
	“Oh that’s not her father!”  she said, and Wendy looked surprised.  “That’s her
uncle.  The other one is her father. They’re brothers,” she added, hoping to clarify the
situation a little better. 
	“Oh!”  Wendy smiled shyly.  “I’m sorry. I just thought — well, he’s been holding
her ever since I got here, I just thought he was her father.”
	“He’s a proud uncle,” Hannah said, nodding, and giving Ty a grin and a wink
because he seemed to have picked up on the conversation the two women were
having.
	“Yep, I’m the proudest uncle on the block!” he announced.  “Can’t wait til this little
princess gets a bit older though, so I can teach her how to get into trouble.”  He winked
back at Hannah, and Cole smacked him on the shoulder. 
	“Ouch!”  Ty exclaimed, over-reacting, and Morgan wiggled and cried.  “Now look
what you’ve done! You woke the baby!”
	Cole reached to take Morgan and Ty reluctantly let her go, then shifted in his
chair now that he could move more freely.  Cole cuddled her a moment, but when she
didn’t seem to settle, he handed her to Hannah, who cradled her in her arms facing
Wendy, who had immediately leaned over to get a better look. 
	“She’s adorable,” Wendy cooed, just as her husband marched proudly back into
the room.
	“Dad was ecstatic!”  he announced, a huge grin on his face. “And I called Wade
and rubbed his nose in the fact that we had a boy!”  He bent and gave his wife a kiss,
and told her how much he loved her, then he stood up and looked at the other people in
the room for the first time.   It seemed he recognized at least one of the McKinley
brothers, for he walked back across the room to shake their hands, then pulled out two
cigars with blue bands around them and handed them out.
	“Ty McKinley, isn’t it? John Craig here.  Have a cigar to celebrate the birth of my
bouncing baby boy! How ya doing man?”  He gave Ty a vigorous handshake, then
shook Cole’s hand as well and handed him the second cigar as Ty introduced the man
to his brother.  Then he looked at Hannah.  “So which one of you guys is the proud
father today?”
	“That’s my baby,” Cole said, proudly, as if he wasn’t going to let anyone forget
that Morgan was his.  “She’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!”
	Ty straightened in his chair. “That’s because she looks like her uncle, ya know.”
	Cole punched his brother in the shoulder again, harder this time since Ty was no
longer holding the baby, and Ty once again cried out in pain.
	John, on the other hand, looked down at the baby in Hannah’s arms. “You’re
first?”  he asked, and Cole nodded.  John shook his head. “To bad, I feel for ya, man. 
Now my Wendy here,  she got it right the first time! Yeah!  A boy! That’s the way to
make ‘em!”  He punched his arm into the air in celebration, and Hannah looked
cautiously at Cole. Was he hiding any disappointment over Morgan being a girl, she
wondered.  Was he wishing deep down inside that the baby had been a boy?
	Cole was looking at the man, however, as if he were from outer space.  He
shook his head and turned to look at Morgan. “This baby is the most precious thing God
ever gave me, and I don’t give a damn whether she’s a girl or a boy.  The most
important thing is she’s healthy!”  He looked at Hannah, and the sincerity in his eyes
almost made her cry. She beamed back at him, and nodded curtly as if to punctuate his
statement. 
	John, on the other hand, looked unconvinced, and gave his wife a glance that
seemed to say he thought Cole was crazy, then he shrugged.  He didn’t have a chance
to say anything, though, for at that moment a nurse walked in carrying a baby wrapped
in a blue blanket, and John immediately perked up.
	“There’s my boy!” he exclaimed, reaching to take the baby from the nurse.   He
cradled the baby into his arms and beamed down at it, then showed the baby off to Ty
and Cole. “Now this is a baby! Yeah, you’re Daddy’s big boy, aren’t you Nathan?”  He
turned his attention to the baby and walked around to the other side of his wife’s bed.
Wendy gave Hannah an apologetic glance, then turned her attention to her husband
and son.
	Hannah looked up at Cole, who just shook his head, while Ty got up and pulled
the curtain between the beds, saying something about letting the young couple have
their privacy.  It was obvious that neither McKinley agreed with John Craig’s way of
thinking, and nothing could have made Hannah happier at that moment. 
	
	Wendy stayed a couple of days in the bed beside Hannah, and while she was
there, there was a constant parade of people visiting, and the room was filled with
flowers and gifts.  Everyone was crowding the room and making such a big deal over
baby Nathan, that Hannah was glad to see the day when John and Wendy took their
baby boy home.  After that, she and Morgan stayed in the hospital for another three days,
until the baby was given the OK to go home.  Cole had had to work much of the time,
but had visited in the evenings, and often Ty either came with him or followed shortly
after.   Jennifer and Clarice had also visited in the evenings, but the days had been long
and lonely. 
	Hannah was so glad when the day came to take Morgan and leave the hospital. 
Of course, Ty was along for the occasion, and the three of them carried
Morgan and the only two bouquets of flowers Hannah had got — from the staff at
Bradshaw & Rosen, and from Jennifer — out to Cole’s waiting car. 
	“Why didn’t you bring flowers?” Ty asked his brother, as he juggled the two
flower arrangements, poking around to see who the names on the cards were while
following behind Cole and the baby.	
	“Because,” Cole said, without offering any further explanation.
	“Because why?” Ty persisted. 
	Cole glared at Ty over his shoulder.  “Because I got something else instead,”  he
said through his clenched teeth, trying to get Ty to drop the subject.
	“What?” Ty looked around. “Did we forget something back in the room?  I didn’t
see anything else when I picked up the flowers, and I — “  Cole shot Ty a threatening
look, and all of a sudden the younger McKinley seemed to clue in.  “ — Oh! Yeah, right. 
Silly me! Sorry Bro.”  He stood there with a silly grin on his face while Hannah looked
from one to the other with raised brow.  She wasn’t sure if she dared ask what they were
talking about, even though her curiosity had definitely been piqued.  Somehow, from the
look on Ty’s face, she got the feeling that he had known what Cole was talking about all
along, and had been deliberately acting dumb just to get his brother going. 
	So, Hannah opted not to say a word, and got quietly into the front seat of Cole’s
car while he settled Morgan into the infant carrier seat that Hannah had never seen
before.  When they arrived back at the house, Cole lifted the baby out of the car seat to
carry her into the house just as Ty pulled up behind them on his motorcycle.
	“Just so you know, you’re never taking my daughter for a ride on that thing!” Cole
announced, as Ty lifted his helmet off. 
	“You’re just being an old fuddy-duddy,” Ty remarked, sauntering up beside
Hannah and laying an arm over her shoulder.  “Doesn’t her mother have any say in the
matter?”
	Hannah held up her hands. “Oh, don’t let me come between brothers on this
one!”  she said, laughing.
	Cole ignored them and opened the front door of the house.  “Welcome home,
Morgan!”  he said, changing the subject effectively.
	Home.   Hannah looked around the house.  It would take some getting used to,
but maybe some day she would call his home her home without hesitation.  As Ty 
entered the house Cole was already headed towards the staircase. 
	“Daddy’s going to show you were you’re going to sleep,” Cole said, looking back
at Hannah with a glint in his eyes. “Come on Mommy, you come too.”
	Hannah looked at Ty, who was standing there with his silly grin, lounging against
the wall just inside the door.  The younger brother nodded, and grinned even wider. 
	“Hurry up, they’re leaving you behind,” he said, so she followed Cole up the
stairs, thinking how an outsider might actually think they were a real family. They
reached the door of the bedroom the crib was in, and Cole carefully turned the handle
and pushed the door open, stepping inside.  Hannah followed, then stopped and
gasped, staring around the room in shock.
	“Cole!” she exclaimed. 
	He just stood there, grinning from ear to ear.  “Do you like it?” he asked.
	Hannah tried to hold back tears, but lost the battle.  The room had been
completely transformed.  Around the bottom half of the walls, wooden slats had been
installed and painted white.  The upper walls were the softest pink, with ribbon designs
painted randomly around the top of the walls.   Hanging on the wall above the crib was a
beautiful wall hanging with the letter M scrolled on it. On the opposite wall, white letters
spelling the name MORGAN hung from pink bows.  The big comfortable rocking chair
from the store at the Mall was there, in a white and soft pink, and the room was full of
Teddy bears.  There were bears in the crib, bears in the chair, even bears riding the
rocking horse!
	“Like it!? It’s beautiful! Cole, how did you do this? When did you have time to do
— all this!” She swept her hand around the room.
	“Ty and I have been working on it every day since Morgan was born.  I also
recruited a few of my men to help out.  I wanted it ready by the time she came home.” 
He rested Morgan gently in her crib, and backed up to stand beside Hannah. “So, do
you really like it?”
	“Oh yes!” she exclaimed, just as Ty appeared in the doorway behind them.  She
instinctively threw her arms around him, then turned to Cole and repeated the gesture. 
For a moment, as she hugged him, Cole held his hands in the air at her side before
he finally gave in and hugged her back.  
	“He’s one hell of a boss to work for, let me tell you!” Ty said with a grin. 
“Everything had to be just right, and it all had to be done in time!”
	Hannah relaxed her hold on Cole, and tried to step back, a little embarrassed at
finding herself in his arms, but he kept his arms loosely circled around her waist.
	“I’m really glad you like it,” he smiled down into her eyes. “I was worried.”
	“Oh, Cole, why would you be worried? This is amazing!”
	He gave her a crooked boyish grin. “Well, most of the women I’ve had dealings
with have been very, shall we say — spoilt, and used to getting their own way.  I wouldn’t
have dared to decorate without their supervision.”
	She shook her head as she smiled up at him. “I’m not like that, Cole!”
	He tightened his grip around her just slightly. “I’m beginning to realize that,” he
said.